Mike Fasano: Looking at College Football

Oct 1, 2009 | By: Random Blogger

Guest Blogger: Mike Fasano

Looking at Syracuse

Has anyone noticed that Syracuse opened this year with three Big 10 out-of-conference opponents. Now these games are scheduled years ahead so my guess is that these games were scheduled sometime between now and … the time of the raid by the ACC on the Big East.

Hmmmm

If my math serves me correctly the Big 10 is actually made up on eleven teams – one short of the number needed for a conference playoff. And its no secret that the Big 10 has been flirting with dancing partners. Some years ago, the Big 10 was left at the altar by Notre Dame. What I heard at the time was that Big 10 folks were absolutely furious. Now they wouldn’t take the Irish unless they came begging – which isn’t likely.

Well, who are the most talked about candidates remaining.

Well, Pitt won’t happen as long as JOPA is alive, which will probably be for eternity.

The others most mentioned are Missouri, Syracuse and Rutgers.

Missouri? Puh-leeese. The Columbia, Missouri media market!?!? I can get you more exposure on a public access channel.

That leaves the two eastern teams, Syracuse and Rutgers. Well, my, my. Suddenly Syracuse’s scheduling habits start to make sense, start to look like a “cozying up” rather than “starting out the season with three losses.” Now, honestly, I don’t think that Syracuse AD Daryl Gross is sharp enough to be that crafty. After all, he is the same guy who hired Greg Robinson to coach the Orange football team. And Robinson’s main claim to fame was his work as a motivational speaker for Joe Lefeged. No, this wasn’t Gross’s baby. My own feeling is that former Syracuse AD Jake Crouthamel is behind the scenes on this … and much more. Think about some of the Orange’s recent moves. Playing games in Yankee Stadium to re-introduce Syracuse to a now Rutgers-dominated recruiting hotbed, hiring Doug Marrone who has already made a talent-depleted Orange squad competitive and finally setting up a network of connections to the Big Ten. These things have the fingerprints of the crafty Crouthamel all over them. My bet is that the old “Crou” couldn’t stand seeing what was happening to Syracuse and took Gross “by the arm.” Of course, this is just my guess but don’t be surprised if you see more sharp-as-a-tack moves from the frigid north.

Looking at the ACC

Just how god awful does this league have to be until the media says, “God, they’re awful.”

South Florida was picked to finish fourth in the Big East – at least until they lost the best player and starting quarterback. ACC heavyweight Florida State was supposed to have a field day with the Bulls.

Well, you know the result and the game wasn’t as close as the score. Aaarrrggggh. Don’t get me started. Don’t get me started on out of conference records, top 25 records and so on. The ACC is a joke. So why doesn’t the media recognize it?

I think that part of the problem is that college football has been run for so long by southerners and midwesterners that the ‘good old boy’ network makes up its mind before - and even after - the scores trickle in. It was that way with Big East Basketball. The powers-that-were declared that Big East Basketball couldn’t compete with the “big boys” and that was that. Everyone believed it. At least everyone believed it until one year when John Thompson, Lou Carnesseca, and Rollie Massimimo simultaneously thermo-nuked the pride of the “power-conferences.” After that the landscape of college basketball changed forever.

It’ll be that way with Big East Football. Someone in the Big East will have a break out year. They’ll go to the national championship game and pummel the petunias out of a heavily-favored-power-conference prima donna.

After that, college football changes forever.

Mark my words.

Looking at Rutgers

But who will be the Big East team that changes college football?

Two years ago Big Dog and I travelled up to Syracuse to watch RU beat the Orangemen. I was shocked. In terms of facilities, campus and game atmosphere – it wasn’t close. Rutgers won hands down. The much ballyhooed Carrier Dome looked dingy and small, you had to search to find any tailgating and the campus – though nice – simply did not compare.

Now draw a line from New Haven to Albany to Syracuse to Harrisburg to Cape May. In the area circumscribed by those lines Rutgers now has no competition – not really. Yes, other teams come in and poach but increasingly the team that defines the northeastern football is not Penn State – a team now identified with a Midwestern conference, nor is it Pitt with its yet to be proven coach. And it certainly isn’t Boston College who can’t decide if it’s an eastern intellectual or one of the Dukes of Hazard. No, the team that now defines the northeast is Rutgers. And the team that Greg Schiano has assembled is loaded with talent.

Rutgers Football under Schiano typically stumbles out of the gate – his is a team that develops slowly but comes on strong as the season progresses. Someday, and maybe someday soon, a Greg Schiano team is going to learn how to play football from day one of the season. It will learn that the season starts in September and not mid October. It will catch fire in the dog days of August and not in the crisp coolness of the fall.

That day isn’t today. It isn’t this year. But that day will come. And when that does.

College football is going to change forever.

Updated On: Jan 27, 2010 12:30 PM